The fallacy of representative bureaucracy theory: Critical race theory (counter-storytelling) to understand civilian-state interactions

Representative bureaucracy theory has largely been applied to a myriad of policy areas including citizen-state interactions. One type of citizen-state interaction is in the form of law enforcement and community interactions. Law enforcement scholarship has primarily employed representative bureaucracy theory to understand police interactions with communities of color. However, the scholarship is not conclusive, and the theory lacks key attributes important for understanding police-community relations from the vantage point of racially minoritized communities. This paper argues that to develop a deeper understanding of communities of color interactions with law enforcement, scholarship must ground itself in Critical Race Theory (CRT) (counter-storytelling). This framework argues that when applying CRT to study law enforcement, scholarship will become more intentional in its design and integrate the socio-economic-historical existence of law enforcement organizations. Further, scholarship will wrestle with how socio-economic-historical existence directly manifests in the interactions we see today between law enforcement and the community.